Ever wondered where your supermarkets get those spring onions, beans and corn in mid-winter? The answer might surprise you: from two huge farms at the edge of the Sahara, in northern Senegal. These farms – run by UK companies G’s Fresh and Barfoots – have transformed arid brushland into booming vegetable estates. Thanks to abundant sun, clever irrigation and a fast cold-chain, millions of UK shoppers are now biting into “Produce of Senegal” each winter. This story looks at how it works, why it matters, and what it means for both the UK and Senegal.
Why Senegal? Meeting the UK’s year-round veggie needs
The UK imports a lot of food. In fact, roughly 40% of Britain’s food comes from abroad. And for fresh fruits and vegetables, that figure is even higher: in winter it can reach 90%. (British farmers can’t grow lettuce and sweetcorn year-round under grey skies, so we look elsewhere.) Traditionally that gap was filled by southern Europe or countries like Peru, but climate change (droughts in Spain) and even Brexit have squeezed those sources. Shoppers expect salads and sweetcorn twelve months a year, so importers are scouting new spots.
Senegal ticks a surprising number of boxes. It sits just below the Sahara but has plenty of sunshine and long days – ideal for many crops. It also has water: the mighty 1,600km Senegal River ends in a great lake (Lac de Guiers) that feeds irrigation pumps. The government tightly controls water, but companies can lease the right to use it under local management – for example, G’s Fresh draws from Lac de Guiers under a long-term permit. Politically, Senegal is stable (no recent coups) and eager for investment, unlike some neighbouring states. So for British retailers looking for reliable winter produce, Senegal suddenly looks appealing. As Barfoots’ UK manager Julian Marks puts it: “British consumers expect year-round produce. Senegal helps meet that demand”.
What do these farms grow, and who runs them?
The two farms are big. G’s Fresh, a Cambridgeshire salad specialist, set up West African Farms (WAF) in 2011. WAF now cultivates about 500 hectares of land for export crops, with pivot irrigation powered from Lac de Guiers. It grows spring onions year-round, plus radishes and green beans (mostly October–May). WAF says it employs over 2,000 local people, mostly women. (Under Senegal law, foreigners can’t own land, but G’s has a long lease agreed with the state and local communities, using efficient water pivots.) Each week in winter WAF harvests about 2 million bunches of spring onions, 100 tonnes of green beans and 80 tonnes of radishes. Roughly 70% goes to UK shops, with the rest to Europe.
The Barfoots operation is even larger. Sussex-based Barfoots runs a joint venture (with Senegal’s SCL group) on some 3,000 hectares in the Saint-Louis region. This farm produces a huge range: sweetcorn, baby corn, green beans, chillies, and butternut squash, among other crops. On one part of the estate, 55 million sweetcorn cobs are grown each year for the UK market. The Barfoots-SCL farm employs about 3,000 local workers. Both farms support local communities: together they’re said to give around 5,000 to 9,000 jobs – a big boost where youth unemployment can hit 19%. Profits are partly re-invested locally: the companies build schools, clinics and irrigation projects to help villagers nearby.
How do they farm in the desert and ship veggies home?
You might wonder, how can crops grow in near-desert sand? The secret is irrigation. Both farms reclaim flat scrubland and use pivot irrigation (giant rotating sprinklers) powered by pumps. One EU agronomist says Michael Laurent (an early investor) literally flew over Senegal on Google Earth, looking for flat sunny spots near water. He picked Saint-Louis because it ticks all boxes: sun, labour, and the Senegal River. Now a network of canals, pumps and pipes carries river water onto the fields – enough to irrigate about 2,000 hectares of once-barren land. Barfoots notes the sandy soil “enjoys abundant sunshine, long daylight hours, and a guaranteed source of fresh water from the nearby Senegal River”. (For example, WAF’s spring onions come from sandy fields where pivot arms soak the plants with Lac de Guiers water.)
Even with irrigation, farm work here is tough. In winter (December–March) it’s dry with no rain and daytime temperatures well over 35°C. Workers—again, mainly local women—start picking vegetables early. For instance, a Harverster named Diarra wades chest-high into cornfields and snips off cobs, loading them into bags on her back. The teams wear wide-brimmed hats to shield from the sun. Speed is important: picked vegetables must hit the cold chain fast. Amazingly, within an hour of cutting, corn cobs are in a refrigerated pack-house, chilled to 0°C. From there they’re driven by truck five hours to Dakar’s deep-water port. Once at port, goods are loaded into refrigerated shipping containers on a weekly vessel bound for the UK. The boat takes about six days to reach England’s south coast (Poole, Dorset). From dockside it’s another short trip to Barfoots’ warehouse in Sussex. All along this route, the produce stays cool, so by the time spring onions and squash hit Tesco shelves they’re as fresh as if picked that morning.
Supply Chain (Farm to Fork):
- Harvest: Veggies (corn, beans, onions, etc.) are hand-picked in the morning sun.
- Cooling: Within an hour, they’re packed and cooled to 0°C in nearby pack-houses.
- Road Transport: Chilled trucks carry produce from the farms (~30km north of Saint-Louis) down to Dakar port.
- Sea Freight: Once weekly, a refrigerated container ship sails from Dakar to Poole, England (~3,000 miles, 6 days).
- Retail: The vegetables arrive in UK distribution centers and on to stores (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, etc.) labeled “Produce of Senegal”.
What about jobs, water and the climate?
On the bright side, these farms mean steady jobs and infrastructure in a poor region. Companies boast they support over 10,000 people through direct work and community projects. Pay is modest by UK standards, but higher than subsistence farming. Workers get base wages plus productivity bonuses – for example, picking too slowly can leave some money on the table. Barfoots says lower labour costs (and bonuses) allow them to keep prices down and even consider importing year-round. Local councils have new schools, clinics and better roads built with farm profits. Even “gleaning” is encouraged: after harvest, leftover onions are given to pickers for their own families.
However, not everything is rosy. Some Senegalese worry that big farms squeeze out traditional farmers. Local activists have protested in nearby villages (e.g. Fanaye, Gandon) saying large deals often use less land than promised, leaving locals landless and unemployed. In one case (a rice/ethanol project) only 30 out of thousands of promised jobs materialized, sparking unrest. These concerns are old: as one farmer put it, “in losing their land, peasants lose part of their identity… local people feel squeezed while only a small proportion of the land is actually cultivated. The promises on jobs and infrastructure are not kept.”. Senegal’s laws actually say land stays communal under state control, and private use needs development plans. In practice, the government grants long leases to investors in hopes of modernizing agriculture. (Ironically, Barfoots and G’s say the land they farm was “just bush” before – essentially wild scrub – but critics point out other lands have been tied up too.)
Water is another touchy issue. West Africans know Lake de Guiers is precious – it supplies half of Dakar’s drinking water. In fact, another U.S.-run venture (African Agriculture Inc) drew so much water for alfalfa that rights groups cried foul last year, accusing it of “grabbing” lake water. (That company denies the claim, saying it uses less than 100,000 m³ per year via efficient pivots.) G’s and Barfoots insist their own use is modest. They use pivot irrigation – a very water-efficient system – and only tap licensed amounts approved by the Lake management authority. Barfoots’ site even notes: “a guaranteed source of fresh water from the nearby Senegal River”. So far, local hydrologists haven’t flagged major damage, but the concern is real: climate change and higher reservoir use could tighten the belt on farmers and residents alike. For now, companies stress transparency and say they pay for water use and have no drainage waste. (Governance bodies like OMVS oversee River Basin use, though critics watch closely.)
Finally, consider the carbon cost. Critics – including City University’s Tim Lang – point out that flying or shipping food long distances still makes greenhouse gases. “Transporting vegetables by sea still generates emissions,” Lang notes. He argues: maybe Britain should eat seasonally instead of insisting on year-round salads. (Seasonal British peas in summer would avoid shipping emissions entirely.) The counter-argument: ocean freight for vegetables is actually quite efficient per kilo (far less carbon than flying green beans from Kenya, say). And companies like G’s have tried to cut energy use (solar water pumps, LED lighting, local seedlings etc.). It’s a trade-off: all food has an impact, whether it’s tractors on British fields or diesel on African trucks. The question is whether the social and economic gains in Senegal and the steady supply in the UK outweigh the transport footprint.
Bottom Line
In a nutshell, those winter veggies in UK shops now often have a sunny origin story in Senegal. Two major British companies have built large-scale farms and packing stations around Saint-Louis, turning desert-edge land into fields of corn, beans and onions. Thanks to round-the-clock irrigation and a reliable refrigerated journey – from field to Dakar port to Dorset in 6 days – fresh produce can hit our shelves even in January. The upside is clear: more food security for UK consumers and thousands of jobs back in Senegal. But it isn’t all sunshine. Locals worry about land rights and promised benefits, and experts question the climate math of importing more food.
Like many global supply chains, the Senegal farms are a mixed bag. On coffee-catch-up terms: the farms show how a bit of irrigation, investment and logistics can “green” even harsh landscapes. It’s a clever solution for feeding Britain and boosting Senegal’s economy – as long as everyone keeps an eye on the real costs. Time will tell if this model stays sustainable for people and planet alike.
